Love Letters

Love Letters is a 1945 popular song with music by Victor Young and lyrics by Edward Heyman. The song appeared, without lyrics, in the movie of the same name, and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Song for 1945.

Presley recorded the song twice, once in 1966 for single release and again in June 1970.

I was aware back in the 60's that Presley's version followed the Ketty Lester version with its sparse piano work but wasn't aware of the earlier version by Dick Haymes!

This is the Dick Haymes orchestral version from 1945.

Who was Dick Haymes?

"Richard Benjamin "Dick" Haymes (September 13, 1918 – March 28, 1980) was an actor and singer. He was one of the most popular male vocalists of the 1940s and early 1950s. He was the older brother of Bob Haymes, who was an actor, television host, and songwriter. Haymes was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1918.[1][2] His mother, whom Haymes predeceased, was Irish-born Marguerite Haymes (1894–1987), a well-known vocal coach and instructor. Dick Haymes became a vocalist in a number of big bands, worked in Hollywood, on radio, and in films throughout the 1940s/1950s." Read More here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dick_Haymes

Here's Ketty Lester's version from 1962

Ketty Lester (born Revoyda Frierson, August 16, 1934) " is an American singer and actress, who is best known for her 1962 hit single, "Love Letters", which reached the Top 5 of the charts in both the United States and the United Kingdom. The daughter of a farmer, she was born in Hope, Arkansas, one of a family of 15 children, and first sang in her church and school choirs. She won a scholarship to study music at San Francisco State College, and in the early 1950s began performing under the name Ketty Lester in the city's Purple Onion club. She later appeared as a contestant on the game show You Bet Your Life, and toured Europe as a singer with Cab Calloway's orchestra." Read More here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ketty_Lester

The Songwriters

Victor Young (Composer)

"Young was born in Chicago on 8 August 1900 into a very musical family, his father being a member of one Joseph Sheehan’s touring Opera company. The young Victor began playing violin at the age of six, and was sent over to Poland when he was ten to stay with his grandfather and study at Warsaw Imperial Conservatory, achieving the Diploma of Merit. He studied the piano with Isidor Philipp of the Paris Conservatory. While still a teenager he embarked on a career as a concert violinist with the Warsaw Philharmonic under Julius Wertheim before returning to Chicago in 1920 to join the orchestra at Central Park Casino. He then went to Los Angeles to join his Polish fiancée, finding employment first as a fiddler in impresario Sid Grauman's Million Dollar Theatre Orchestra then going on to be appointed concert-master for Paramount-Publix Theatres.

In 1930 Chicago bandleader and radio-star Isham Jones commissioned Young to write a ballad instrumental of Hoagy Carmichael's "Stardust," which had been played, up until then, as an up-tempo number. Young slowed it down and played the melody as a gorgeous romantic violin solo which inspired Mitchell Parish to write lyrics for what then became one of the great love songs of all time." Read More here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victor_Young

Edward Heyman (lyricist)

Edward Heyman (March 14, 1907 – October 16, 1981) "was an American musician and lyricist, best known for his compositions "Body and Soul", "When I Fall in Love", and "For Sentimental Reasons". He also contributed many songs for films.


Heyman studied at the University of Michigan where he had an early start on his career writing college musicals. After graduating from college Heyman moved back to New York City where he started working with a number of experienced musicians like Victor Young ("When I Fall in Love"), Dana Suesse ("You Ought to Be in Pictures") and Johnny Green ("Body and Soul", "Out of Nowhere", "I Cover the Waterfront", and "Easy Come, Easy Go").
From 1939 to 1954, Heyman contributed songs to film scores including That Girl From Paris, Curly Top, Kissing Bandit, Delightfully Dangerous and Northwest Outpost.
Arguably Heyman's biggest hit is his composition "Body and Soul", written in 1930, often recorded (in 1939 by Coleman Hawkins and since by many others), which frequently crops up in films, most recently in 2002's Catch Me If You Can. Heyman also wrote "Through the Years", "For Sentimental Reasons", "Blame It on My Youth" (with Oscar Levant), "Love Letters", "Blue Star" (theme of the television Series Medic), "The Wonder of You", "Boo-Hoo", "Bluebird of Happiness", and "You're Mine, You".
"Out of Nowhere" by Johnny Greene and Edward Heyman became a standard piece of gypsy swing, a musical style established by Django Reinhardt in the 1930s. Gypsy swing remains popular to this day, for additional information see Django Reinhardt and Rosenberg Trio." Read More here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Heyman

This is Elvis's version from 1966

The 1970 version by Elvis